Runcie earns top marks from Broward School Board

January 22, 2013|By Karen Yi, Sun Sentinel

The transportation blunder that left thousands of students stranded at the start of the school year has overshadowed many of Superintendent Robert Runcie's accomplishments to date, the Broward School Board said Tuesday.

In an interim evaluation Tuesday, the board praised Runcie's visionary leadership and ability to foster a culture of collaboration and teamwork. He was given an overall rating of "highly effective" for securing a teacher pay raise, winning a $48 million grant for teacher evaluation reforms, and having more than 80 percent of schools receive a state-issued A or B grade.

"His efforts thus far are commendable," wrote board member Patricia Good, one of six who gave him the top rating. Three others rated him "effective." "[Runcie] continues to align resources to maximize efficiencies and redirect resources to support schools."

In 2011, Runcie, a former businessman and Chicago public schools administrator, took over a district struggling with corruption, mismanagement and drastic budget cuts. He was also tasked with implementing a series of state mandates — developing a fair teacher evaluation system, transitioning curriculum to new common core state standards, and new student assessment benchmarks.

"Runcie inherited a school system in crisis," wrote board member Rosalind Osgood. "His leadership has begun to change the public's perception of the district and most important, is creating a culture in which children and academic achievement are priorities."

Despite his successes, board members said Runcie has work ahead of him, primarily in developing a districtwide communications plan and ensuring tougher accountability practices and follow-through with district employees.

"In terms of transportation, [Runcie] delegated too much authority to staff and did not monitor follow- through," board member Laurie Rich Levinson said. "Transportation changes were lacking in execution and not seen to completion by the senior administrator."

Board member Nora Rupert called the bus mess the "worst opening of school that the Transportation Department has ever had" and blamed the bulk of the problem on Runcie's mishandling of Transportation Director Chester Tindall.

"Runcie delegated authority and showed confidence in Mr. Tindall but Mr. Tindall needed to be monitored and held accountable within a transparent process and that was clearly not the case," she wrote.

Runcie acknowledged the district ran into significant challenges with the Transportation Department.

"The bottom line is any time you're going through any real, transformative change, it's not always smooth and that's what the transportation department tells us."

Last year, the board gave Runcie an "effective" rating and though he earned a higher mark this year, he said there's always room to improve.

"We'll run into bumps in the road, but we can't just take the easy way out."